Carr wants to make Pocock tackle

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Stormers loose forward Nizaam Carr has revealed his plan to limit Brumbies flank David Pocock's breakdown involvement when they host the side at Newlands on Friday.

The former Stormers skipper has said that although Pocock is the marked man, they have to focus on the team as a whole if they want to avoid a defeat to the form outfit in the 2016 competition.

“I am looking forward to my clash with Pocock, but he is far from the only threat in their team, and we need to remember that,” Carr told Supersport.

“I remember back in 2012, at the start of my career, coach Allister Coetzee was giving me instructions and he kept telling me that Pocock was the man to watch and the man I had to keep close to, and he kept saying ‘Who is the man you have to beat’ and I’d answer ‘Pocock, Pocock, Pocock’.

“But then he got to Siya Kolisi, who was next to me in the line, and he asked ‘Who is the man you have to lift in the line-outs’. And Siya answered ‘Pocock’."

Carr revealed that the Stormers' game plan will be to do what the All Blacks have successfully done on a few occassions; to draw Pocock into more of a tackling role, which in turn will make him less efficient at the breakdown.

“Pocock likes to be the second player to arrive at the defensive breakdowns, but if we can target him with our ball carriers and make sure he’s always the first tackler, perhaps it will take him out of his usual role and ensure that we get some clean ball on attack,” said Carr.

Although his preferred position is number eight, Carr is keen to slot in at flank.

“The coach and I had a good chat about it. I suppose some people might say that the Stormers have been playing without a specialist openside flank, and maybe they are right, but we are working on that. For it is about changing my game plan so that I focus on playing towards the ball. That requires a mental shift and I think I am getting there.”

Fleck praised Carr's performance in the first half of their battle with the Sharks last week and although his opposite number Marcel Coetzee went on to win the man of the match award, he believed that Carr's display was worthy of the achievement.

“I think Nizaam is back in the form he showed in 2014 when he made the Springbok squad on the basis of what he’d done as a number six and while I think Coetzee deserved his man of the match award, I don’t think Nizaam was far from getting the award himself," said Fleck.